Sacred space

I really like fires in the backyard on these chilly fall nights. Lea & I sit around the fire as the kids & Clover run around and play in the dark. Every so often they stop and suit with us to catch their breath. Now we have created a very special spot for these evening fires. It is in the back corner under a small tree. We are still working on the landscaping and decorating. It almost feels like we are miles from home. It is becoming our own sacred space. Later.

Garden Spiders

In general I am not a fan of spiders. They do not make me run away screaming, but they do make my chest feel tight and my heart to start beating faster. However, I have always liked the looks of a garden spider. I really enjoyed surveying country roads in the late summer. The ditches are always full of weeds and garden spiders. This particular spider was outside of the main library at the University of Illinois for a couple of weeks. Not long after I took this picture I saw 3 guys trimming the bush with scissors and the spider was gone. Hope it found a nice new place to live out the rest of its life. Later.

Hardy's Reindeer Ranch

Today we spent an hour and a half in this maze. We were not lost, but trying to find the 8 check points. We found 6 before giving up and moving on. Once we were out of the maze we got to ride pedal cars, shoot paint guns, and play on some hay bales. Not to mention the bunnies, the puppy, and of course the reindeer. We had a great time, though the kids were disappointed that we did not get to eat lunch with our friends at Heritage Lake. Sounds like we need to make another trip to Rantoul very soon. Later.

Lake of the Woods

What a beautiful view. It is from the bell tower at Lake of the Woods in Mahomet. There are a lot of stairs to climb but it is worth it. We went back a few weeks later hoping to see the changing colors of the leaves but the tower was full if wasps! The higher we climbed the more there was. My daughter and I quit at about the second landing. My wife and son went all the way up. The view was nice but there were so many wasps going in and out the windows that they did not get a good look. If you get the chance you should go. If you get there early the wasps may not be so bad. Later.

Snacks downtown

Downtown Champaign & Urbana both have some great shops. Antiques, original art, used books, and just about anything else you might be looking for. I personally prefer going to downtown Champaign though. It is certainly not all the bars that draw me, those days are long gone. It is the great little cafes and coffee shops that I really enjoy. This picture if of a fabulous iced sugar cookie with apple cider to drink. I thought the cookie might make the cider taste bitter, but they went together really well. I got it at Cream & Flutter, formerly known as Cakes on Walnut. Stop by and check it out sometime. Later.

Queen Anne's Lace

It is hard to tell in this picture but our Queen Anne's Lace is going to bloom soon. That would be those weeds with white flowers that you see in unmown ditches along the road. Smells a bit like carrots. You may be wondering why I am excited about a weed finally flowering in our yard. We plan our flower garden so that it will provide the food & habitat of each stage in the life of the wildlife we want to see more of. We have tried transplanting this flower many times with no success. Last fall my son suggested harvesting seed heads, so we did. We planted them this spring, but I was beginning to think we had planted them too late. Then today we saw our first stalk. Hopefully there will be plenty of time still for the seed heads to form. If not we will harvest more this fall and scatter them before the first frost. Later.

Garden

This is our first tomato! We actually got two cherry tomatoes off of the plant that the tomato horn worm destroyed, but I am not counting them. I have decided that while I really like fresh veggies, I don't care for all of the work a garden takes. So this year I planted a few tomatoes & several pepper plants in pots that I scattered around the flower gardens. The tomatoes are doing fair, but the peppers are really struggling. They would probably all be doing better if I could remember to water them once in a while. I will take what ever we get though. It beats getting up at 6 to go to the farmers market. Later.